To A Skylark

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1. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
2. Bird thou never wert,
3. That from Heaven, or near it,
4. Pourest thy full heart
5. In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. _5
6.  
7. Higher still and higher
8. From the earth thou springest
9. Like a cloud of fire;
10. The blue deep thou wingest,
11. And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. _10
12.  
13. In the golden lightning
14. Of the sunken sun,
15. O’er which clouds are bright’ning.
16. Thou dost float and run;
17. Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. _15
18.  
19. The pale purple even
20. Melts around thy flight;
21. Like a star of Heaven,
22. In the broad daylight
23. Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, _20
24.  
25. Keen as are the arrows
26. Of that silver sphere,
27. Whose intense lamp narrows
28. In the white dawn clear
29. Until we hardly see—we feel that it is there. _25
30.  
31. All the earth and air
32. With thy voice is loud,
33. As, when night is bare,
34. From one lonely cloud
35. The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed. _30
36.  
37. What thou art we know not;
38. What is most like thee?
39. From rainbow clouds there flow not
40. Drops so bright to see
41. As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. _35
42.  
43. Like a Poet hidden
44. In the light of thought,
45. Singing hymns unbidden,
46. Till the world is wrought
47. To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not: _40
48.  
49. Like a high-born maiden
50. In a palace-tower,
51. Soothing her love-laden
52. Soul in secret hour
53. With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower: _45
54.  
55. Like a glow-worm golden
56. In a dell of dew,
57. Scattering unbeholden
58. Its aereal hue
59. Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view! _50
60.  
61. Like a rose embowered
62. In its own green leaves,
63. By warm winds deflowered,
64. Till the scent it gives
65. Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves: _55
66.  
67. Sound of vernal showers
68. On the twinkling grass,
69. Rain-awakened flowers,
70. All that ever was
71. Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass: _60
72.  
73. Teach us, Sprite or Bird,
74. What sweet thoughts are thine:
75. I have never heard
76. Praise of love or wine
77. That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. _65
78.  
79. Chorus Hymeneal,
80. Or triumphal chant,
81. Matched with thine would be all
82. But an empty vaunt,
83. A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. _70
84.  
85. What objects are the fountains
86. Of thy happy strain?
87. What fields, or waves, or mountains?
88. What shapes of sky or plain?
89. What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? _75
90.  
91. With thy clear keen joyance
92. Languor cannot be:
93. Shadow of annoyance
94. Never came near thee:
95. Thou lovest—but ne’er knew love’s sad satiety. _80
96.  
97. Waking or asleep,
98. Thou of death must deem
99. Things more true and deep
100. Than we mortals dream,
101. Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? _85
102.  
103. We look before and after,
104. And pine for what is not:
105. Our sincerest laughter
106. With some pain is fraught;
107. Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. _90
108.  
109. Yet if we could scorn
110. Hate, and pride, and fear;
111. If we were things born
112. Not to shed a tear,
113. I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. _95
114.  
115. Better than all measures
116. Of delightful sound,
117. Better than all treasures
118. That in books are found,
119. Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! _100
120.  
121. Teach me half the gladness
122. That thy brain must know,
123. Such harmonious madness
124. From my lips would flow
125. The world should listen then—as I am listening now. _105